YouTube Interview with FCC Chairman Genachowski
34:47 March 16, 2010
News & Politics
citizentube
Just after FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski delivered his agency's National Broadband Plan to the public, we sat down with him for an exclusive YouTube Interview, in which he answered questions submitted and voted on by people on Citizentube.
Listen to the Chairman answer your questions, including a couple of rounds of "F-C-Caesar" in which he gives simple thumbs up/thumbs down answers to your questions.
And you can find out more about the National Broadband Plan here:
http://broadband.gov/
On Twitter, follow @citizentube, @FCC, @grove
Here are the questions we asked:
Chairman Genachowski, how will you increase broadband competition to provide faster Internet access for Americans at lower prices?
-Elizabeth Stark, New York
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4Omot3AaN4
Let's go ahead and assume that the fiber has been laid. How does the FCC view broadband from a regulatory point of view? Does the FCC look at broadband as a commercial service, or a critical infrastructure?
-Michael Tapp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjPgvwGmFlM
Mr. Chairman, you've mentioned that the Broadband Plan will offer spectrum and subsidies to big mobile broadband providers. Will the plan help WISPs, and hence consumers, by helping us to obtain reasonably priced spectrum and bandwidth?
- Brent Glass, Laramie Wyoming
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59IFhsowA08
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F-C-Caesar Round 1:
Will you commit to personally meeting with 'grassroots groups' (outside beltway) in the cities that you travel to, especially before moving ahead on important topics like net neutrality, media ownership, and wireless competition?
- Media Action Grassroots Network, Oakland, CA
Can the Internet continue to effectively scale without a major technology upgrade?
- pkeys, Milpitas, CA
Does the FCC believe that every Internet line should be of high enough quality to start a business? If so, will it set minimum quality rules?
-Yonran, San Francisco, CA
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Would your proposed network neutrality rules help or hinder efforts to close the digital divide, increase deployment of broadband to minorities and un-served or underserved communities, and increase broadband adoption by minorities?
- Navarrow, Mount laurel New jersey
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOimuHnhGQ0
Mr.Chairman: We know that broadband access is critical to success for individuals, communities and society. Please tell us what you're going to do to improve broadband access for the fastest growing group in America, Latinos.
- Max Benavidez, Los Angeles, California
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4FTFXhY6zs
What about the most rural towns? We have no broadband and no mobile phone access. Our businesses and children are leaving.
- Evslin, Vermont
What will the FCC do to help kids like us and all over the United States get access to the internet?
-Trinity School, Menlo Park, CA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJHOjckvQ_g
Do you believe that the phone companies should have more influence over the FCC than the nearly two million Americans who have declared their support for strong Net Neutrality protections?
-Deborah Brown, Boulder, CO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSiSKaOI5KA
Lobbyists say that Net Neutrality will kill investment in broadband build out, but haven't produced evidence to support this claim. Do you think we need to sacrifice the Internet's openness in order to connect people who don't now have broadband?
-PhilDampier, Rochester, NY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26IysfnCJ8Q
What is the FCC doing to ensure competition amongst cellphone providers and to ensure that consumers are allowed to use their devices however they want and with whichever provider they want so long as it's not detrimental to the network?"
- Kevin, Baltimore, MD
As someone whos working to expand broadband to more Americans and appreciates the FCCs hard work on the National Broadband Plan --- Im interested to learn what the Plan does to help with roadblocks to broadband expansion.
- Paul Schieber, Overland Park, Kansas
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4Omot3AaN4
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F-C-Caesar Round 2:
At times, some members of Congress seem uninformed about new technologies. Are more tech savvy people needed in positions within the FCC to prevent our elected representatives from believing, for example, that the Internet is a "series of tubes"?
- Jay, Atlanta
Will there be subsidized broadband rates for students?
- Adam, Washington D.C.
Will the average consumer have access to a T1 speed connection by 2011?
- HeadStudiosInc, centralNewYork
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What are you most excited about in this plan, and how would you like people to remember it decades from now?
- Ernie, Rural Virginia
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